New Mexico Recycling Coalition

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EEM Scrap in Alamogordo Caught Illegally Smelting Materials

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Recycling Turns Aging Computers, TVs Into Reusable Plastics, Metals

Santa Fe New Mexican by Julie Ann Grimm, February 26, 2009

Getting rid of old computers, out-of-date cell phones or dinosaur television sets is less fun than buying new ones. Should you just dump the old model in the trash? If you drive it somewhere to be recycled, what is your guarantee that it will be dealt with in a way that's safe for the environment? In an era of fast-changing technology — including the impending digital conversion of television broadcasts — discarding electronic waste has become a growing issue.

This weekend in Santa Fe, a one-day, e-waste collection event was aimed at making it easy, safe and certain: keeping the junk out the landfill and making sure reusable materials are returned to the marketplace. An upstart Albuquerque company will work with the city to haul away and recycle as much of the material as they can get their hands on. Kept whole, the old equipment doesn't have much resale potential, but that changes once it is broken into its raw components.

"Cleaned and separated like we do, all this has a value," said Mullen Estepp as he stood in a warehouse full of old TVs, piles of circuit boards, computers and other electronic items. "So every little component is being recycled. We take all the valuables and use them to pay for the operations." That's the basic economic model for Albuquerque Recycling Inc., a family business formed this year. The company guarantees "end-of-life" treatment for everything collected. That means the owners promise not to send whole computers overseas or secretly drive materials to landfills.

Gary and Janet Estepp, and their son, Mullen, sell plastic computer and monitor casings to Master Fibers, a large Albuquerque facility where Gary spent part of his career in the plastics business. Master Fibers buys pallets of the material, then squeezes it into compact bales that eventually make their way to plastics manufacturers. When the company amasses enough bales, it sends a truckload of plastic out the door. The last truckload went to Talco Plastics Inc. in Corona, Calif., said plant manager Hector Valverde. That company makes custom plastic compounds.

Other easy-to-retrieve value from e-waste is found in metals. An average television or computer monitor contains between 2.5 and 3.5 pounds of copper, all neatly wound onto an electromagnet in one spot. The electron gun that shoots the picture onto the screen is made of reusable steel. All that makes up for the trouble of dealing with several pounds of leaded glass that make up the rest of the equipment, Mullen Estepp explains. Manufacturers won't pay for it, but some will accept it for reuse if the cost of transportation is covered. In the case of televisions, which typically contain more glass than computer monitors, a $5 fee per set covers the cost.

The company uses a proprietary method of crushing and tumbling the leaded glass. When it collects enough, that will be shipped to an Arizona fiberglass maker. Copper and steel go to local scrap dealers, and other materials collected at the Albuquerque business go to various out-of-state companies. For example, circuit boards go to either a Texas refinery or a California recycler. Another California company accepts computer printers that go through a grinding, a mechanical separation process, according to Gary Estepp.

Collecting and recycling e-waste isn't new for Santa Fe. For years, the joint city/county transfer station off Buckman Road has been the drop-off point for residents. That facility charges a per-pound fee for e-waste but does not recycle TVs. Electronic waste is picked up by shippers on contract with Natural Evolution Inc. Since 2004, the city and county have collected about 320 tons of computers, monitors, telephones and other gadgets that traveled by truck to the Tulsa, Okla., business.

Natural Evolution owner Traci Phillips takes pride in being part of the crowd "doing the right thing." Every year, she deals with more than 3 million pounds of material. The industry is competitive, with brokers trading materials by the pound. It has sometimes involved unscrupulous practices leading to the kind of story exposed last year on 60 Minutes. The CBS News report showed computer circuit boards being incinerated in open barrels in a Chinese village. The investigative report built on information that has been collected for years by a group called Basal Action Network. BAN advocates for a global standard on recycling and disposal of electronic waste to prevent pollution of such rural, poor areas — an idea the United States has yet to buy into.

Phillips said it's important for consumers to know that not every bit of recyclable material that goes to China is treated irresponsibly. Her company only uses downstream vendors that carry an international certification called ISO 140001, which includes tracking and auditing processes intended to demand accountability. "It has been one of our priorities to make sure that none of the material that we handled was being dumped internationally. We have purposely dealt with companies that only hold the highest environmental standards," she said. "We don't deal with brokers that export scrap at all. We don't load containers and we don't ship to port cities. We are very adamant about where and how things go."

That said, her biggest customer right now is Fortune Plastic and Metal, based in Nanjing, China. The company has more than 20 processing facilities throughout the United States, Mexico and Hong Kong, and is a major player in the industry. The economics are based on numbers, Phillips said. "From a global perspective and a market demand, ultimately the demand is in China and India for scrap materials because of the growth that they have," she said. "They have more of their people now wanting cars and TVs and new materials like the U.S. So it's unreasonable to think that all recycled materials are going to stay in the U.S."

Absent plans for reuse, electronics pose a threat to the environment if the items end up in landfills or dumped in the open. A recent report from the U.S. General Accounting Office says e-waste is one of the worst growing waste-management issues. "Without effective phase outs of hazardous chemicals and the development of effective collection reuse and recycling systems," the report reads, "highly toxic chemicals found in electronics will continue to contaminate the soil and groundwater as well as pollute the air, posing a threat to wildlife and people."

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New Member Highlight: Oso Biopharmaceuticals

Oso Biopharmaceuticals, LLC is a contract manufacturing company with an emphasis on the production of injectable pharmaceutical products that require special or complex handling. The company began operations in Albuquerque in 2008 and joined NMRC in January of this year. Their recycling program began in November of 2008 and they are planning a company-wide kickoff on Earth Day.

Oso Biopharmaceuticals is committed to protecting the environment. As an Albuquerque community member, they conduct business with the highest applicable legal and ethical standards and strive to contribute to the economic development and environmental protection, while seeking to improve the quality of life for their associates, families and communities, and society in general. Oso wants their associates to have a work environment where they feel safe and secure.

OsoBio is committed to conducting business in a manner that manages environmental issues responsibly. They fulfill this commitment by:

Complying with environmental regulations
Conducting operations in an environmentally sound manner
Applying the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle in all processes
Promoting environmental responsibility among their employees
Pursuing continuous improvement in their environmental performance
Encourage and educate their associates to take personal accountability for working toward protecting the environment and creating a safe and healthy workplace

For further information about Oso Biopharmaceuticals and their recycling efforts, please contact Josh Montano at josh.montano@osobio.com

Welcome to the Coalition!

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Welcome to New Members 2009

Environmental worries have transformed the waste industry, says Edward McBride (interviewed here). But governments’ policies remain largely incoherent

New Mexico State University Currently Ranking #3 in National RecycleMania Contest!